I enjoyed 1982 at the movies

Before closing the book for 2022, I need to fulfill a commitment made earlier in the year, and compile a list of my favorite movies from 1982, 40 years ago. 

A reader asked me to compile the list a few months ago, but schedule commitments kept me from completing the task. So here's a look at my top 10 films from 1982, Ronald Reagan's second year as president, and a pretty good year for movies. I also added a few titles on a short list of honorable mentions. (All are presented in no particular order.)

My Top 10:

1. Blade Runner - Director Ridley Scott's dark but fascinating look at Los Angeles in the future (2019), where special police units known as blade runners hunt and "retire" human replicants. It remains one of the best sci-fi movies of the last 50 years, in my opinion. Harrison Ford stars and the cast includes Rutger Hauer, William Sanderson, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, M. Emmet Walsh, Edward James Olmos, James Hong and Joanna Cassidy. 

2. Diner - Director Barry Levinson's first installment of his trilogy of films set in Baltimore. Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, and Kevin Bacon lead an ensemble cast as a group of young men preparing for a friend's wedding. It's a wonderful movie that sadly is mostly unknown to younger audiences. 

3. The Year of Living Dangerously - Dark, moody, and moving. Mel Gibson plays an obnoxious young reporter covering political turmoil in Indonesia. He's in over his head, but is helped by Sigourney Weaver, who plays an assistant in the British embassy. Linda Hunt won an Oscar for her work as an assistant to Gibson's character. 

4. An Officer and a Gentleman - Richard Gere portrays an officer candidate at the Navy's challenging aviation training center. Debra Winger plays a new-found girlfriend, and Louis Gossett Jr. won an Oscar for his performance as the drill sergeant. It's an entertaining movie that stands the test of time.

5. Tootsie - Dustin Hoffman stars as a man dressed as a woman in order to land an acting job on a day-time soap opera. The supporting cast includes Jessica Lange, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, and Bill Murray. Lange won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Director Sydney Pollack delivers a comedy for the ages with this work.

6. The Verdict - Paul Newman is a lawyer on the back end of a once-promising career who takes a case to trial when everyone around tells him to settle out of court. The supporting cast includes Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, and the great James Mason.

7. 48 Hours - Nick Nolte plays a cop who teams with temporarily paroled convict Eddie Murphy to hunt a cop killer and his partner. Director Walter Hill delivers with the best action film of the year and one of the best entries in the "cop-buddy" genre of the 1980s. The supporting cast includes Frank McRae, Annette O'Toole, and James Remar as Albert Ganz, a criminal audiences loved to hate. 

8. The Thing - Director John Carpenter gives audiences the best version of the sci-fi classic. Kurt Russell leads a solid cast that includes Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Dysart and David Clennon. A team in Antarctica confronts an alien creature that is killing them one at a time.

9. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Arguably the best of the Star Trek movies. The special effects have lost some of their impact over the years, but the movie still delivers, thanks to the cast and an engaging story about revenge and friendship. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and others from the cast of the original TV series appear and are joined by Ricardo Montalban and a young Kirstie Alley.

10. Fast Times at Ridgemont High - This movie led the field in the genre of 80s teen movies, and there were many good ones in that category. Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judd Reinhold, and Phoebe Cates. The movie remains a classic for its characters, their lines and for a few key scenes.

Honorable Mentions:

My Favorite Year 

Cannery Row: 

First Blood 

Missing 

-- Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment or submit a question. I can be reached by email at kbotterman@gmail.com.

Thanks for the memories, Ned

 

I was saddened to learn of Ned Beatty's death at age 83 on June 13. 

I was a fan of Ned's and saw nearly every film in which he performed and many of the TV shows in which he appeared as either a regular or guest star. 

There are thousands of memorable character actors, but probably only a few hundred that are widely known. Ned was one the great character actors and appeared in a variety of productions from the early 1970s through 2013. 

He acted with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Carol Burnett, Glenn Close, Julia Roberts, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, and Tom Hanks.

Beatty was of a different era, one that featured many talented character actors. They included Murray Hamilton, Jack Weston, R.G. Armstrong, Agnes Moorehead, Elsa Lanchester, Harry Morgan, and Edna May Oliver (two of my favorites). Many of those gifted actors are no longer with us.

Beatty could play a variety of character types, from a priest or the ordinary guy next door to generals, judges, and politicians. Daily Variety, the entertainment publication, once called Beatty the busiest actor in Hollywood. 

"Deliverance" (1972) was Beatty's first big film role and the movie was mentioned in many of the media stories I read about his passing. It's an intense film and worth watching, but it's not among my favorite Beatty performances, either in film or for TV.

Here's my list of favorite Beatty film roles: 

"The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972) Paul Newman stars as the legendary Old West justice and Beatty appears in a supporting role. A bit of trivia for you: Beatty would play Judge Roy Bean much later in his career, in a fine TV adaptation of Larry McMurtry's "Streets of Laredo". 

"Nashville" (1975) Beatty is part of a tremendous cast in director Robert Altman's Oscar-nominated (Best Picture, Best Director) tale about a few days in the country music scene.

"All the President's Men" (1976) Beatty plays a busy assistant state's attorney in the film adaptation of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book about the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal.

"Network" (1976) Beatty portrays Arthur Jensen, the corporate boss at the controls of the fictional United Broadcasting System (UBS) television network in director Sidney Lumet's Oscar-winning production that features a wonderful cast (William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall and Peter Finch), and Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant screenplay. Beatty's scene with Finch is priceless.

"Superman"  (1978) Beatty plays "Otis", Gene Hackman's bumbling sidekick, in Richard Donner's Oscar-winning (Best Visual Effects) hit. The film starred Christopher Reeves as the "Man of Steel" and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, but the supporting characters played by Beatty and Valerie Perrine steal the show. 

"Back to School" (1986) Rodney Dangerfield goes to college with his son, and Beatty shows off his comedic skills as the university's Dean Martin. It's all good fun from a time when audiences enjoyed comedy without getting offended. 

"Cookie's Fortune" (1999) Beatty teams with director Robert Altman again and a cast that includes Glenn Close, Lyle Lovett, Julieanne Moore, Liv Tyler, and Donald Moffat. It's a much overlooked piece, but worth a tumble.

"Charlie Wilson's War" (2007) Beatty plays Doc Long, a veteran congressman who proves instrumental in fellow congressman Charlie Wilson's (Tom Hanks) efforts to secure money and weapons for the Afghan resistance to use against Russians in the early 1980s. The cast also includes Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman (Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, and Denis O'Hare. Directed by Mike Nichols

Beatty also appeared in a number of TV shows, movies, and mini-series. Here are a few of my favorites: 

"The Marcus-Nelson Murders" (1973) This was the pilot film for the popular "Kojak" series starring Telly Savalas. The movie won two Emmys and was nominated for two more. Beatty plays a police detective. 

"The Execution of Private Slovik" (1974) Beatty plays an Army chaplain in this tale of the only U.S. soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War. Martin Sheen starred. Gary Busey and Charles Haid also appear. The movie received seven Emmy nominations and won two.

"The Streets of Laredo" (1995) Beatty portrays Judge Roy Bean in this  adaptation of Larry McMurtry's book. The cast includes Jamer Garner (doing a turn as Captain Woodrow Call), Sam Sheperd, Sissy Spacek, George Carlin, Sonia Braga, Charles Martin Smith, and James Gammon. The production received two Emmy nominations. 

I was in the fourth grade, watching TV with my Dad, when Jack Elam came on the screen and Dad said he was great character actor (he was right). I asked him what that meant. It was a simple explanation.

Character actors are the men and women playing supporting roles in a movie, and if they're good, they can make a mediocre movie entertaining. If they're really good, they can help make an entertaining movie a great film and an Oscar contender. I've watched character actors closely ever since. 

I think Beatty's body of work proves he was an exceptional character actor who contributed to many memorable award-winning productions.

-- Thanks for reading. Please comment here or send a note to kbotterman@gmail.com.